# The INSTALL.txt no longer contains the SERVER CONFIGURATION block. These settings are now hardcoded into sites/default/settings.php, and are merely scary technical junk here.
# The INSTALL.txt has been updated with the latest system requirements. A whole sentence was struck regarding differing versions of PHP for the OSs.
# The INSTALL.txt contains URLs to MySQL and PostgreSQL. If we're including the URL for PHP in the same sentence, then there's no reason why we wouldn't include them for the database engines. What are the minimal requirements for the RDBMS? Those should be included here too.
# The INSTALL.txt's OPTIONAL COMPONENTS has renamed to OPTIONAL REQUIREMENTS. The only difference between the meaning is the amount of user confusion.
# The INSTALL.txt has a new CONTENTS OF THIS FILE, in hopes that people will more immediately notice that there are upgrade instructions at the bottom.
# The INSTALL.txt had some potentially confusing lines adjusted, including further clarifications, standarding to "userid" (instead of using both userid and username interchangebly) and so on.
# I've moved most of .htaccess php_value's to the ini_set system for /sites/. There are a few reasons for this, chiefly that it is centralizing all the PHP setting modifications to one place. But, this also clears up a few initial configuration issues: first, the user doesn't have to worry about whether they have Apache 1 or 2, and whether they need to change an IfModule line. Also, the running assumption is that these php_value's are /going to work by default anyways/, when the INSTALL.txt suggests otherwise (under OPTIONAL REQUIREMENTS, it talks about "the ability to use local .htaccess files", which suggests that "local .htaccess files" INCLUDING "mod_rewrite" are entirely optional.) Some variables, however, had to remain in .htaccess because they can't be overridden at runtime, but the amount was so small that duplicating them for both Apache 1 and Apache 2 possibilities is no longer a prohibitive concern.
# There are two variables in .htaccess that I'm concerned about: track_vars, and allow_call_time_pass_reference. track_vars appears to be no longer necessary (as of 4.0.3, track_vars is always on, and my setting it here had no impact on the results of a phpinfo), and allow_call_time_pass_reference seems, at least here, to ONLY WORK if the .htaccess value is set to "1", and not "On" - meaning that Drupal installations are currently working correctly with its default value (off). According to the PHP docs, this feature is now deprecated. However, since both of these variables require further investigation, track_vars has been moved to settings.php, and allow_call_time_pass_reference has been "fixed" to a 1 (not 'On').
# Along with the changes above for sites/default/settings.php, I've also removed the spacing indent in the documentation, as well as many a few grammatical/punctuation changes here and there. I don't think the leading spacing is "right" according to the style guidelines, but maybe there's a special need for it. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Dries Buytaert
Steven Wittens